Old Glory yet waves o'er many emotions

May 26, 2006|By William Mullen, Tribune staff reporter

When the first official American flag was accepted and formally approved by Congress in 1777, it was seen less as a symbol of patriotism and more as a military tool--an identification of ownership flown on ships and over forts.

Today it may be hard to believe that the object so many revere as "Old Glory" had such a utilitarian, unemotional beginning. As a new temporary exhibit on the history and meaning of the nation's flag makes clear, the star-spangled banner is powerfully meaningful to many Americans.

The exhibit, "For Which It Stands," was created by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and is opening to the public for the first time anywhere Friday at the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum on North Michigan Avenue.

Examining how the flag has been used and regarded for 229 years, the exhibit shows off rare artifacts from the Smithsonian's collection, including a large swatch from the flag that inspired the writing of the national anthem and a battered, burned flag rescued from the World Trade Center rubble.

"This exhibit shows not only the history of the flag, it makes the visitors think about and decide for themselves what the flag means to them," said Joe Madeira, the museum's director of exhibits and programs. "Is it a sacred object to you, personally? We want people to see there is no right or wrong answer; its meaning is more the personal experience of each individual."

The exhibit is the baby of Marilyn Amelia Zoidis, a senior curator at the Smithsonian. It is a part of that museum's Star-Spangled Banner Preservation Project, an $18 million undertaking to conserve and showcase the flag that poet Francis Scott Key saw prevail through a U.S. battle with the British Navy over Ft. McHenry near Baltimore on Sept. 14, 1814.

The flag, originally 30 feet by 42 feet, is now only 30 feet by 34 feet, thanks to centennial souvenir seekers who cut swatches off its trailing "fly" edge and snipped out one of its 15 stars in the 1870s. Having undergone an extensive conservation process, the flag in 2008 will be the centerpiece display in the renovated national history museum.

Zoidis said Americans invest more meaning and symbolism into the flag than do residents of any other country.

"We're the only nation with a pledge of allegiance to the flag and a formal code of behavior about the flag, addressing how it is to be flown, folded and destroyed when damaged," she said.

"Americans use it to symbolize their loyalty and veneration for the democracy, but they have also used it to show their anger and displeasure with policies of the government by defacing or burning it," said Zoidis. "That is a powerful statement, because the flag holds so much meaning and memory for so many."

In the heat of the anti-Vietnam War protests, Congress passed the 1968 Federal Flag Desecration Law, criminalizing "publicly mutilating, defacing, defiling, burning or tromping upon" the flag. In 1989 the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down the law on grounds that it violated the 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech.

Four months later Congress passed an altered Federal Flag Protection Act, which also was overturned. Politicians ever since have been trying to pass a flag desecration amendment but have not been able to muster sufficient votes.

The exhibit also shows how public attitudes about appropriate use of the flag have changed.

In 1942 Congress issued a flag code that said "the flag should never be used as wearing apparel," and Vietnam War protester Abbie Hoffman in 1968 was famously arrested for wearing a shirt made from the U.S. flag. One of the artifacts on display at the museum is a pair of bell-bottom blue jeans with a small flag patch applique--a decoration that got a high school girl sent home from school in 1971.

But by the time of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, manufacturers had flooded the U.S. with flag clothing, which tens of millions of Americans wore as a patriotic statement. The exhibit includes mass-marketed sneakers decorated with the flag.

Two of the most poignant displays are a flag made by a World War II soldier and the banner damaged in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

The GI, Joseph Fenniman, landed in Normandy and fought with his company into and across Germany. The company had no flag to fly, and he got permission from his superiors to put one together himself. Fenniman made it from a ripped-up Nazi flag and the dress coat of a captured German officer.

An FBI agent found the charred and ripped banner in the World Trade Center rubble at a landfill on Staten Island after it was removed following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

"For Which It Stands" will be at the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, 445 N. Michigan Ave., through Nov. 13. The museum is open from 10 a.m. through 6 p.m. every day but Tuesday. Admission is $5.